allows them to move on to thursday's debate between joe biden and paul ryan as well as the remaining two debates between president obama and mitt romney. >> in terms of thursday's debate, did the president's performance at all during that make the vp debate more vitticcal? critical? >> increased pressure on joe biden. for democrats to get in a very good performance and you ent up looking, paul rye sn a very well-spoken person, although this is going to be his first debate on a stage like this. joe biden has done this many times before. he actually might have a little advantage. as we all know sometimes joe biden is saying things that actually draw attention. so i do think that this is going to be a must-see debate for the country, and, of course, the obama campaign is hoping for a little better performance. >> very gracious way to talk about things that the vice president said in the past. mark murray, thank you very much. >> thanks, alex. >>> in this week's office politic, christy todd whitman, first to defeat an uncome bent governor in an election. today new jersey's only female go